Episode 83 - Space, Time and Energy

Throughout most of my life there have been things that I have really wanted to do, but never seemed to have the time. I now find myself in a place where I seem to have all the time in the world, but I don’t have the energy to do anything! It seems like some kind of cruel irony. Of course the truth of the matter is that if I did have the energy, then I wouldn’t have the time because I’d be busy with other things. All of this leads to a very interesting question; “did I really want to do those things after all?” Or at the very least; “how much did I really want to do those things?”

Sometimes our limited time makes us want to rush...

when really it should make us slow down and appreciate what we've got.

A simple if not particularly cheery truth about life, is that it only lasts so long. So we all have a limited amount of time to use, and I guess for most of us, there are more things that we’d like to do than there is time in our lives. At first that might sound slightly depressing, but it’s actually really exciting; it means that there are enough things of value in this world to keep us busy right up to our very last days! It does however raise one very important question; how do I really want to spend my time? It occurs to me that either I’ve spent too much time getting distracted from the things that I really want to do by things that are not so important to me, or I’ve spent too much time wishing I could do things that aren’t nearly as important to me as the things that already fill my life up and I should be spending much more of my time appreciating them! I’m not sure which it is yet, I suspect probably a bit of both.

Episode 82 - Brick by Brick

This week I’ve been thinking about Lego. I don’t really know why, but to be fair, why not? I guess maybe because sometimes life feels like making a Lego model. You keep adding more bricks and more bricks but nothing seems to really take shape. Until suddenly towards the end, you can finally begin to see what it is you’ve been working at take shape and it all makes sense. Did you know that there are over 25,000 different types of Lego block? That’s an incredible amount! But then when you consider what you can do with those blocks, it suddenly seems comparatively tiny, because with just those blocks, you can make pretty much anything! If you can imagine it, you can probably make it. And it’s not limited to just models, I have friends who have made useful household items out of Lego, from Jewellery to coffee tables, I even have friends who have used the hands of the little men to hold their USB cables for them when not in use!

All of these possibilities from a choice of 25,000 types of brick seemed incredible, until I looked out of the window. Did you know that there are currently 118 different known elements? With probably a few hiding under the bed or behind the sofa. With just these 118 different building blocks God made the whole world and everything in it. Not just a stationary model that’s good to look at (read play with), but a beautiful dynamic world, ever changing and self-sustaining, with beauty and design beyond our conceiving. A universe that extends beyond our imagination and a world where we literally hold life in our hands. A universe with more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth and a world where there are more lifeforms on one person’s skin than there are people on the planet. What an amazing world we live in and what an amazing creator, who made it all, even the building blocks themselves!

My thoughts were to take one last jump though. As I wandered around St Paul’s Cathedral a number of years ago, I admired the intricate stonework and all the different types of building materials used. And I started to think about God’s true Church – not the buildings, but His people. There are, well, I don’t know how many, I haven’t done the maths, but there’s certainly quite a few of us throughout the world. And the amazing thing is that each one of us is truly unique. There’s no two of us the same. And were not haphazardly created – we’re not abstractly unique, but we’re designed and intentionally created – fit for purpose. How amazing is that? So if God can make the whole universe with just 118 different pieces, just imagine what he can do with all of us if we let Him!

Episode 81 - Sanguma

I may have only lived in Papua New Guinea for little over 6 months, but it and it's people are and will always be firmly placed upon my heart. There is much that I openly talk about with anyone who will listen, but there are other things that I am much less willing to talk about these. This is because I am very aware that my meagre 6 months leaves me painfully ill equipped and lacking in knowledge of such subjects. Sanguma is one of these topics. Whilst there are many wonderful beautiful things about Papua New Guinean culture, like anywhere in the world, it also has it's own unique struggles too. Sanguma is one of these troubles and I recently came a cross an article that explains a bit about it far better than I could, so I wanted to share it with you. MAF even get a mention! You can read it here.

The Beautiful PNG

Episode 80 - Lost in Time

I must start this blog with an apology to those who read it every week. Last week, for the first time in over a year, there was no blog. I forgot. I’m sorry. To tell the truth, last Monday came and went before I realised that, well, Monday had come and gone. My illness doesn’t really have a pattern or a routine, and consequently, nor do I really (although I try). Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad, without any apparent rhyme or reason, so I do what I can when I can. For the most part this works very well, but it does mean that I have very little concept of time at the moment, as there doesn’t seem much by which to mark it. Strangely, in a way, this reminded me of my time in Papua New Guinea.

I have always loved the seasons and the way the British countryside changes over the year and then comes right back to where it started. I have considered it a real joy to be back in England to watch the cycle. Whenever anyone asks me what my favourite season is, I find it difficult to answer because I genuinely love them all and the next one always seems to come at just the right time. But for me, it’s always been more than just an adventure, it’s a marker of time. As one season rolls into the next it’s a time that reminds me to look back and what has happened, the good and the bad. A time to take stock and reflect. And a time to thank God, because whatever has happened good, bad or indifferent, there are always great things that God has done if we remember to look for them.

The four seasons

Papua New Guinea only has two seasons; a dry season, and a wet season. Whilst they are very distinct from one another, somehow there doesn’t seem to be the noticeable transition that there are between the seasons in Britain (or perhaps there was just too much going on for me to notice). As a consequence, with so much happening as I looked forward to the future, it was easy not to appreciate all that was and had been happening. Sometimes life is like British seasons; there’s lots of things happening and they’re all very noticeable. Other times life is more like the seasons in Papua New Guinea, things don’t really seem to change and the things that happen go almost unnoticed.

My life feels a little bit like that right now. Whilst in some ways every day is different and when I wake up in the morning I don’t know how I’m going to feel that day. But on the other hand, in the bigger picture, nothing seems to have changed for nine months; in fact my circumstances seem to be exactly the same! Then I stop and look and think about what life was really like nine months ago and what has happened in that time and I realise that whilst there has been no big step change to my circumstances, God has been working in so many ways! And so even when life seems to be the same as always, I will try to always find the time to look and see all that God really has been doing, and to thank Him that He never stops.